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In the wake of both the news that Chicago is tops in murder and the high profile triple homicide involving family members of Oscar-winning actress and Chicago native Jennifer Hudson, Mayor Daley took to the city's defense, saying he's "not proud" of Chicago's new #1 status and claiming that nothing could have been done to prevent the Hudson murders.
"We’re not proud of it. But, you don’t hide it. You don’t take the statistics, all the facts and say it didn’t happen. It happens,” Daley said, apparently referring to past attempts to re-classify homicides to hold down the murder rate.Well, unless it turns out that William Balfour committed the crimes, in which case it would have been preventable because he should have been locked up for a parole violation back in June. Apparently possessing cocaine is not enough for a person convicted of attempted murder to violate parole. But we digress...“We’ll get it down next year. We’ll get it down. We’ll do things differently. But, this [Hudson family] crime could never have been prevented, unfortunately.”
Daley also defended the Englewood neighborhood, saying, "There are good families in Englewood. Proud of it. We have to remind ourselves [of] that." He took the opportunity to further expound upon his own anti-gun stance, saying, "I ask anyone: If there’s guns in your home, call somebody. Tell a teacher there’s a gun in my home. Call the police. Get the gun out. Guns will kill more and more people."
Meanwhile, William Balfour's mother, Michele Davis-Balfour, took to Nancy Grace's show to - what else - proclaim her son William's innocence in the case. She claims William was with his girlfriend at the time of the shootings.
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I really wish he would hav said something along the lines of how unacceptable it is to have a murder rate in a city half the size of new york.
The man should be outraged not saying "it happens"
ugh.
I watched the video and thought to myself that this is just one more example of someone who refuses to take any kind of responsibility.
Typical of how today's society operates. Elite or low life...it's always someone else's fault. Her son is an angel and victim of the police and society.
Also, I commented on this below: the Mirror ran an article that the little boy's hand was hacked off before he was murdered, possibly a ransom intent. If this is true, why hasn't any local news source picked up on this?
Ingrid - I went looking for that article but couldn't find it.
Marcus - http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/latest/2008/10/29/jennifer-hudson-s-murdered-nephew-had-hand-hacked-off-115875-20849828/
if that's true....god...no words...
Nice points, Ingrid. Accountability is almost a bad word these days. (Odd, I guess, coming from some stranger on the Internet.)
Allow me to translate Mayor Maynot's jibbering"
"PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE LET ME HAVE MY OLYMPICS PLEASE!"
@Ingrid:
I can't even comprehend the vileness of that.
matty, Ingrid
Well said.
I kind of agree with Daley. Bad economy plus hot summer equals spike in violent crime. It does happen.
As for the parole business, the states have an interest in not returning parolees to jail because it spikes recidivism rates, making it look like are prisons aren't doing their jobs. Add to that overcrowded prisons with no space for someone to return to and an overworked parole system, again, I will classify this as both routine and unavoidable.
There are far too many parents that are actively ignorant of their children's misdeeds. Ms. Balfour proclaiming her son's innocence is a huge red flag to me. His girlfriend was the one who turned him in for crying out loud! He wasn't with her! Come on woman, wake up already. If you had opened your eyes when he was younger maybe you wouldn't be in this situation!
I wish that just once, our mayor could speak in full, complete sentences that actually include a bit of empathy and concern, rather than the short, choppy, first-grader-esque chunks he spits out.
I kind of agree with Daley. Bad economy plus hot summer equals spike in violent crime. It does happen.
That doesn't explain why our murder rate is higher than New York's. Sure, we only have them beat by about 9 murders, but New York City has over 8 million people! Chicago has less than 3 million. That is truly sad and shameful.
mikey,
I think it's because there is more to do in New York.
Ingrid, I assume you're being a little sarcastic, but I actually agree with you. There are a thousand factors that go into why a city has more crime. The amount of time it takes ambulances to respond can easily make aggravated assaults homicides. The morale of the cops. The number of alleys (Chicago has far more than NYC). The density (NYC is far denser, even outside Manhattan). But the fact remains that our proportional number is nearly 3 times that of New York City. Really sad.